I was spelunking around in SQL Server 2008 R2 today, after looking at a PowerPoint presentation by Madhan Arumugam about some of the low-level engine improvements in SQL Server 2008 R2 (when it is running on Windows Server 2008 R2), I discovered some new information that can be uncovered in DMV queries in SQL Server 2008 R2.

The first query is adapted from one of the samples in Madhan’s presentation. The second two show some new columns in sys.dm_os_sys_info. One mysterious thing I noticed is that the SQL Server 2008 R2 BOL talks about two more new columns (virtual_machine_type and virtual_machine_type_desc) that don’t show up when I query that DMV.